The Tycoon's Secret Affair (The Anetakis Tycoons #3)(38)

She swallowed and lowered her gaze. “No, I can’t imagine. It would devastate me too.”

“Perhaps you can understand now that he’s told you about them.”

She looked up again, braving Chrysander’s stare. “That’s just it. I want your help.”

Chrysander’s brows came together in confusion. “My help? With what?”

“Finding Eric.”

“No. Absolutely not. I won’t allow Piers to go through that all over again.”

Jewel put her hand over Chrysander’s when he turned to go back inside.

“Please. Hear me out. Part of the problem was that Piers never got to say good-bye. He never got any closure. His wound is still raw and bleeding. He’s still grieving for that two-year-old he lost. His only memory of Eric is of the day she left with him, how Eric screamed and cried for him. Maybe if he could see him now it would help to ease some of that pain. I can only imagine that he’s wondered over the years if Eric is happy, if he’s well, if he’s needed anything. If he saw that Eric wasn’t hurting, maybe it would go a long way to healing the awful pain Piers feels.”

“You would do this?” Chrysander asked. “You would willingly bring a child back into his life that he loved? Risk contact with a woman he once loved just to make him happy again?”

“Yes,” she said huskily. “I would do anything to ease his hurt.”

Chrysander studied her for a long moment. “You love my brother very much.”

She closed her eyes and turned away. “Yes,” she whispered. “I do.”

“All right, Jewel. I will help you.”

She grabbed his hand. “Thank you.”

“I just hope when this is all over that my brother is still speaking to me,” he said wryly.

She shook her head vigorously. “I’ll tell him you had nothing to do with it. I’ll take sole responsibility.”

“My brother is a lucky man, I think.”

“I just hope he thinks so,” she said wistfully.

“Give him time. I have no doubt he’ll figure it out.”

Chrysander leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’ll do some digging and let you know what I come up with.”

Bella slipped out through the glass doors. “I’m afraid we’ve held him off for as long as possible. I hope you’re done, because Theron and Piers are convinced we’re plotting some evil.”

Chrysander chuckled. “Bella, I have no doubt that where you’re concerned, it’s absolutely true. I haven’t forgotten that you dragged my wife into a tattoo parlor not so many months ago.”

Jewel burst out laughing. “A tattoo parlor? You have to tell me about this, Bella. Did Chrysander have a heart attack?”

“He might have bellowed a bit loudly just before he dragged us out,” Bella said with an innocent grin.

Jewel wrapped an arm around Bella in a show of loyalty.

“Just what we needed around here. Another woman to cause trouble,” Chrysander said with a mock groan.

The door opened, and this time Marley came out with Theron and Piers on her heels. Both men wore expressions of suspicion as they surveyed Chrysander laughing with Bella and Jewel.

“Whatever he’s said, don’t believe a word,” Theron said as he dragged Bella back against his side.

“Why do I gain the impression that my family is plotting against me?” Piers murmured as he went to stand at Jewel’s side.

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. Then she leaned up to brush her lips across his jaw. “You’re being paranoid. Chrysander was just divulging all your family secrets.”

Both Theron and Piers donned expressions of horror. Chrysander held up his hands. “Don’t worry. I’ve told them nothing you’ll be sorry for later.”

“You mean there is dirt they’d be sorry for?” Bella asked. “Do tell. Theron always acts as if I’m the troublemaker in the family.”

Jewel relaxed against Piers and enjoyed the laughing and teasing that went on between the others. She already liked Bella and Marley so much, and she was beginning to lose her uneasiness around Theron and Chrysander. To their credit, both men had seemingly accepted her presence in Piers’s life.

Piers’s hand went to her belly as it often did, rubbing lightly over the swell. She wasn’t even sure he realized what he was doing, but it made her heart ache with love for him.

She was beginning to realize that for all his coldness and aloofness that he was a man of great passion. When he loved, he did so with everything he had. How fortunate both her and her child would be to have his love and devotion. She would never have to worry about being alone or of being accepted again.

“Are you ready for dinner, yineka mou?” he murmured close to her ear. “I have it on good authority that the chef has prepared all your favorites tonight.”

“Hmmm, I think I could get used to being so spoiled,” she said with a sigh.

“You’re easily satisfied,” he teased.

“I just want you,” she said seriously.

Fire blazed in his eyes, and his grip tightened around her midsection.

“Don’t tempt me so or I’ll forget we have guests and take you upstairs to bed.”

“And this would be bad why? Your brothers all have wives. Surely they’d understand.”